Month: June 2015

Steve and I met again today to discuss the status of ‘Beans’ and map out its development in the coming weeks.

I’m happy to report that he should have the first ten roughs by the end of the week, and the plan is for another ten more by the end of next week. A few clean strips will also be completed along the way. At that pace, we should be okay.

I also saw some of the thumbnails and roughs he’s been working on with my bare eyes (we usually collaborate via email). Damn, I wish I could draw so well with such ease. I’m a bit envious and gratified to be working with such talent.

On another note, I’ve been preparing for the launch of the Kickstarter campaign. A few people have already verbally committed to it, which is both touching and a relief. I really want it to be a success – and ideally enough so that we can produce free bonus strips.

We’ll know in 30 days. The Kickstarter campaign goes live soon – at 0:01 on July 1st.

I’d been thinking about it for a while now, but I’ve finally gotten around to creating a blog for ‘Beans’. I figure that it will be a good way for people to keep up on the latest news and to see the evolution of the strip.

Plus which it may be a home for the strips in September if all else fails.

I spent a large part of the day going through my various emails to backtrack all that was going on. Keeping emails is like keeping a journal, and they served me well: I was able to produce a full, detailed blog.

Meanwhile, Steve is working on the roughs for a few more strips today. I can’t wait to see them, because it’ll give me a sense of where it’s headed. Plus which I love seeing the strip develop before my very eyes. Exciting stuff.

Steve sent in the revised version of the first strip yesterday. I fixed some font issues myself to save him the hassles, but it looks really good. REALLY good. And his timing couldn’t have been better, since I wanted it for the Kickstarter campaign.

I submitted our Kickstarter page in haste today, seeing as they say that review and approval might take up to three days. Since my goal is to go live on July 1st, I had no choice but to go ahead even though it could use more work.

Thankfully, I had the time to work on the page. I spent much of the day fine-tuning the details, adding art and reworking the texts. It’s actually starting to look half-decent. I’m not 100% satisfied, but I’m proud of it nonetheless.

Hopefully it’ll sell the project to potential investors.

In any event, Kickstarter approved it within seconds. So I must be doing something right. A good thing, too, because I would have freaked out if there were other hoops for me to jump through at this point. Man, they’re demanding…

Steve is now working on the first strip and has sent in the beginnings of the clean version. It looks amazing, and I can’t wait to unveil the final result.

SO exciting!

Meanwhile, Kickstarter is kicking my @$$. No matter how much bloody private information I give them, it’s not enough to get things off the ground. !@#$

I respect their need to protect themselves from fraud, but as I pointed out to their customer support person, they have more personal information consolidated in one place than even the bleeding government does. It’s absolutely ridiculous, especially if their company gets hacked, like so many do.

Surely there is a better way. Surely we can protect our privacy better in this day and age…

On a more humourous note, Malcolm Mayes has come up with a concept that I wrote two weeks ago for ‘Beans’:

Granted, we’ll be published second, but we’re ahead of the game, conceptually, which grants me hope that the strip will actually be half-decent.

So I finally submitted my final scripts. While Steve is working on roughs, I’ve been trying to figure out those last bits that weren’t working and also merging bits that were cut out in the editing process.

It’s grueling stuff, but I’m satisfied with the end result, given that I had three weeks from start to finish, trying to write something amusing, cohesive and coherent. And working and blogging full time.

I would have been able to do more with it if I had had more time, and it would certainly have been much better if I had been able to collaborate with someone on the texts, to bounce ideas off of.

But it exists, and I’m satisfied with it all things considered. Since it takes a lot for me to be satisfied when I get into that self-examining mode. So it can’t be all bad. At least Steve hasn’t run away.

Still, I can’t help but look at my work with the thought that I’m an amateur having fun with this, and hat what i consider decent may be utter shite for another person, for someone more sophisticated.

I’ve seen plenty of people with hobbies they’re just not very good at, but who are so enthusiastic and passionate that they make it their life’s blood. It can be embarrassing to see that unfold.

I hope what I wrote isn’t that kind of embarrassment. I hope that at least some people will enjoy it. At the very least, they’ll have some eye candy to look at; Steve’s work will no doubt be worth a gander. 🙂

Speaking of which, Steve’s sent in his roughs for strips 2, 3 and 4 as well as a clean version of the header:

It seems a bit wide to me, and the title doesn’t do it for me, so I suggested just going with a font we already have to crop the header like so:

I also added credits and suggested moving the sign to the left, as indicated in red. I love working on ideas and batting them around. I just hope Steve’s patience isn’t being tested.

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About ‘Beans’

'Beans' is a satirical comic strip that reflects the Canadian Federal political landscape. Characters are inspired by real people and the actions and dialogues are inspired by real events. It is intended to provoke reflection, dialogue and laughter.

By transposing the setting to a grade school (albeit a posh, private one) it compares the behaviour of our elected representatives with that of school children. The outrageousness of their behaviour begs the response: "They can't do that!"

Sure they can. And they will.

(This is merely a comic strip, after all - so we're going to have fun with it.)

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